1) There's a whole bunch in this post...all the typical stuff, but keep reading to see an engaging excerpt and frankly, one of the best guest posts I've seen in a very, very long time (thank you, Daniel!)
2) Keep an eye out....I'm reviewing this book soon!
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BLURB
Science has created a
world where anything is possible and everything is affordable.
A
world where illness and disease have been eradicated.
What if
you could be young forever?
What if you didn't want to?
Levi
Clayton Furstman's decision not to be inoculated with technology
designed to bestow youth and immortality leads him on a journey that
forces him to reexamine his relationships, his purpose in life, and,
ultimately, what it means to be human.
Virtual Book Tour Dates: 1/29/14 – 2/26/14
Genres: Dystopian, Sci-Fi, Futuristic, Nanotechnology
WEBSITE * AMAZON * BARNES & NOBLE * CREATESPACE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Daniel Seltzer
Daniel Seltzer holds a J.D. degree and a BA in English. He also holds an MA in Bioethics and previously worked at a major university researching the ethical, legal and social implications (“ELSI”) of nanotechnology. It was while working there that the idea for this story first took shape.
EXCERPT
“The
technology for TIN has been around for decades actually,” said the
young man assisting Clay. The lanyard hanging around the youth’s
neck displayed the words Rudy
and Genius.
It
had been almost eight months since his family had purchased him an
iMeme as a birthday gift and they had finally worn him down and
elicited a promise to have the TIN nanochip fitted today. Rudy was
explaining how the process worked and it seemed to Clay the young man
knew what he was talking about. Most of the Genius Bar staff did.
“It
uses the same technology the physically impaired use to transmit
brain signals to a computer to perform specific functions. Your iMeme
sits here on your Spot, or wherever you choose to keep it, and as
long as it’s within a three-foot radius, it can transmit
information to, or receive information from, the TIN, which is really
just a cochlear nanochip placed in your inner ear. With two-way
communication and the iMeme’s built-in nanocamera, the iMeme can
perform any number of important functions.”
Clay
was still nervous. “So you’re going to stick something in my
inner ear? Right here?” he asked, looking around. “No doctor? No
specialist?”
“Trust
me sir, I’m an Apple trained audiologist. I’ve done thousands of
these. I simply place this device in your ear and the TIN nanochip
will be inserted into your cochlea. Takes just a few moments.” Rudy
put a smile on his face to try to reassure Clay.
“That’s
the problem, Rudy. I’m not too hip on you puncturing my eardrum
with that thing. I mean, don’t doctors say that only thing you
should put in your ear is your elbow?”
“Sir,”
Rudy responded. “The PSD will barely enter your outer ear.”
“PSD?
What’s a PSD?” Clay asked.
Rudy
was clearly working to retain his patience. “Sir, the PSD is the
Placement and Syncing Device,” he said, showing Clay the object in
his hand. It looked to Clay like an ear thermometer with a small
cable hanging off its lower end. Rudy pointed to the small tip
protruding from the top of the PSD and continued. “A nano-needle
extends from here into your inner ear and to the cochlea. The needle
itself is thinner than the proboscis of a mosquito. Not only will you
feel absolutely nothing, the procedure is so safe that even if the
TIN were misplaced, there would be no harm done to you.” He saw the
look of doubt on Clay’s face and added, “The TIN won’t be
misplaced. I promise.”
Rudy
put the PSD to Clay’s ear, pressed a button. Clay closed his eyes,
expecting the worst. He felt absolutely nothing. A hopeful thought
that the PSD was broken crossed his mind. He opened his eyes and
turned to Rudy.
“Listen,
if there’s a problem, I can always come back.”
“I’m
sorry Sir. What was that you said?” Rudy asked, involved in hooking
up Clay’s tiny iMeme to the cable dangling off the lower end of the
PSD.
“I
said,” Clay started and then jumped slightly when he heard a gentle
whisper in his ear.
iMeme
now activated: November 13, 2021. 5:43 p.m.
Clay
spun around to see who had spoken to him, but quickly realized it was
no one, simply his iMeme communicating to him. Clay flushed slightly
with embarrassment as he noticed Rudy grinning. Clay wondered whether
everyone reacted as surprised or whether Clay was the random oddball.
The idea of being looked upon as some sort of fool annoyed him. “What
if I want to take the chip out?” Clay asked.
A
puzzled look crossed Rudy’s face. “Take it out?”
GIVEAWAY
Author
Daniel Seltzer is giving away 20 print copies of Leviticus and a $50
Amazon gift card! Enter through Goodreads and Rafflecopter! USA
residents only, please.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
GUEST POST: Lost: A dystopia of not knowing where
we are (by Daniel Seltzer)
"I want to begin by thanking you,
Elnora, for allowing me to post on your blog and tell you that I love
the name Only God Writes Trees – spectacular!
Since I’m not bound by topics here,
and after reviewing your blog, I thought it might be interesting to
discuss the spirituality of my writing and writing in general. I
bill Leviticus as a futuristic, dystopian novel (and it is).
But I’ve also attached the term “spirituality” to it as well.
And it is a theme that will continue throughout the remaining two
books of the trilogy.
I had been exposed to religious
teachings while growing up as a Reform (and occasionally
Conservative) Jew– and while organized, it was not always regular
and certainly not paramount to my upbringing. I do not mean to infer
that God was not important in my family’s life. I simply mean to
convey that God was not the center of our lives. Rather, we were
impressed upon with a sense that each of us must answer to Someone
(and that is Someone with a capital S); that we are not without some
accountability for our actions.
Now that I am grown, I still look at
God as that outside voice that reminds me that life is larger than
our collective selves; that our actions reach beyond their immediate
recipients. That is not to say that my actions are taken in order to
achieve some type of glorified existence after this one is over. Not
at all. Rather, I believe in the Miltonian notion that Heaven and
Hell lie between the ears – that our actions are important because
they affect the here and now (notwithstanding, and exclusive of, some
post-life reward or punishment) and that religious teachings speak of
larger issues, of refined mores that have come to be acceptable
methods of living. A sort of guidepost in living a good life (and
not of regret or misery) in the here and present. Religious writings
have become highly ingrained in our society – they are memes that
resonate throughout mankind.
While taking a course in college
entitled The Bible as Literature, or some such similar phrase,
it became clear that much of what is attributed to our particular
gods (Jewish, Christian, Pagan, etc) is actually universal among many
religious teachings. I was struck by one such commonality while
taking a Children’s Literature course in which I was introduced to
the Norse myth Odin Goes to Mimir’s Well. For those
unfamiliar, Odin (the Chief God in Norse Mythology) took the form of
man and walked on earth in order to seek wisdom to save the world.
Without the knowledge, the earth would be trapped between, and would
eventually succumb to, the forces of darkness and death/nothingness.
With the knowledge, the Gods and mankind would leave a force which
would, in a time far in the future, conquer evil. But such knowledge
was not free, and Odin, after learning the price, thought long and
hard before he determined to continue his quest. And so Odin, in
order to save mankind and destroy evil, drank from Mimir’s Well of
Wisdom and, after gaining the knowledge he sought, put his hand to
his face and plucked out his right eye. A very powerful myth: the
story of a god, in the form of man, who makes an ultimate sacrifice
for the benefit of mankind. Sound familiar?
It struck me that these stories of
religion go deeper than simply teaching one belief over another, but
teach truths that are universal to mankind. These stories, by their
very nature, resonate with all of us. While listening to NPR
sometime last year, a rabbi (and I apologize for forgetting his name)
points out that the very first question in the bible is God asking
Adam, “Where are you?” This is an important and the fundamental
question – not “Who am I?” which can be answered without
reference to anyone other place or being, but “Where am I?” which
requires that you place yourself within a context. I think that may
authors seek to answer this question. And the trilogy When We
Were Gods of which Leviticus is the first book, attempts
to do so as well.
Levi Clayton Furstman (Clay), the
protagonist of my novel, is forced to answer this question of where
he is. Society has changed overnight and he has suddenly lost his
place, which he was, perhaps, never fully comfortable with in the
first place. But there is a big difference between being
uncomfortable with an answer and having no answer whatsoever. And so
we take this journey with Clay as he tries to figure out where he has
come from, where he is, and where he (and mankind itself) has a place
in the futuristic world that has suddenly come to be. As such, this
is, perhaps, a spiritually dystopian novel – one in which a
seemingly perfect world is questioned by a spiritual homelessness, a
world in which mankind has forgotten his place in the universe.
Leviticus takes some twists and
turns getting to this point, and passes through some very dark
episodes on the way – including the first chapter which begins with
a flashback to Abu Ghraib (which one reader who enjoyed the book
immensely told me she simply skipped) and, later, an old Russian’s
recounting of a lesson learned while serving in the Red Army in the
early months of 1945. But the book delves deep into the spirituality
of mankind and seeks to help us all on our quest to discover where we
are."
